“Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.”
This will not be the first article on this subject that you have gotten from me, and it will not be the last. It is of utmost importance that we let our lights shine, because the world needs to see us shining for Jesus. Actually, they need to see Jesus’ light shining from us. Just like the moon, we have no luminary qualities. Moon light is actually reflected sunlight. Just so, the light that we show to the world is “Son light.” If we want to be the witnesses that Jesus wants us to be, we will let the light that He has given us shine before the world. Notice that Jesus said “let your light so shine…” While the light is not ours, we have some control over letting it shine. How can we stifle the light of Jesus Christ that we have simply because He is our Savior. I think that we can stifle that light by having sour attitudes. Bad attitudes are like soot on a kerosene lamp, they hold the light in. People are aware of us, for example, by the way we treat cashiers or waiters and waitresses. People are aware when we claim to be Christians, when we are unfriendly towards people we do not know. They even watch us at sporting events to see how we are going to behave. That’s why we need to pray that even when a referee’s call does not go our way, we should take it and move on. Having been the chaplain of a high school football team, I know how difficult this often is. Sometimes the “old Joe” wanted to come out. But I tried to be ever aware that I have to let my light shine. I can’t say that I always succeed in this area, at least in my heart, but it is something that I am always aware of. There are many ways that we can keep our lights from shining. We just need to consciously think of the fact that Jesus expects us to let our lights shine. Jesus said “Let your light so shine before men/women.” We always live our lives before people. The last command that Jesus gave to His disciples, and to us through the New Testament, is to go into the world with His message of salvation. We do not like to think that other people can control how we act, and they can’t control our actions. But we can! It should matter to us what other people think of our faith in Christ. We should not spend all of our time worrying about what people think about us, but when it comes to our positive witness for Jesus Christ, it should matter what they think about Jesus in us. In other words, we should live a positive Christian life before other people. They should not see us betraying our faith in Jesus. In other words, we know right from wrong, and we should choose the right because it is, well…… right. We can’t always do what we want to do. In Romans, Paul dealt with the issue of being a “stumbling block.” Meaning that we should let what we do cause others to stumble. Jesus said, “Let your light so shine before men, that they might see your good works and glorify your Father which is in heaven.” We should not be like the Pharisees in the New Testament and do good works “to be seen of men.” Our motivation for doing good works should be to bring glory to God and not to ourselves. I will admit that this is not always easy. Being human, we would like to take credit for the good things that we do. But we must remember that the good work that we do is under the leadership of the Holy Spirit in order to bring glory to God and not to ourselves. This does not mean that we should not feel good about the good things that we do. I know that It is a great feeling to preach a sermon, or share an article that touches other people’s lives. The good feeling comes from knowing that God used me for His purposes. Jesus wants your ,light to shine, and He wants to use you for His purposes. iTherefore, “let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.” Bro. Joe
1 Comment
Denise webb
1/18/2015 12:20:43 pm
Bro Joe,,this is so true,,we will be rewarded in Heaven and not on earth ,,A great Preacher told me that and I think we need more of reading of the BIble and not skipping pages to our need. Then the real people will come out in all of us and we will become better people to teach Gods word and mean what we preach,, May God be with all of us,,Amen Let Gods light shine through all of us,,
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